Position usages of vehicles in electronic road toll systems are determined with the aid of in-vehicle devices, such as, Onboard Units (OBUs) carried by the vehicles, which communicate for this purpose via short-range radio, e.g., dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) with geographically distributed radio beacons (DSRC beacons) or, using a global satellite navigation system (GNSS), with the assistance of self-locating GNSS OBUs. In cases, where the beacons are directly connected to the toll center in DSRC systems, GNSS OBUs generally transmit the ascertained data to the central toll computer server via mobile radio.
Fee charging is generally done in such road toll systems based on prepayment of the amount of money, which can additionally include a security deposit for the vehicle device. When a vehicle device is returned, e.g., at the toll terminal of a decentralized distributor station before crossing a border or boundary, the toll server calculates the sums of money that have been paid in and used up to that point. This is associated with waiting times and undesirable cash reserves or complicated (international) bank transfers at the respective distributor station.
Because of the high expense and low flexibility of such methods for fee charging, it would be desirable to be able to realize the charging in the road toll system by an established noncash payment transaction system, based on payment cards. Determining, paying, adjusting payments and charging a transaction value are considerably more flexible and secure if payment cards such as credit cards are used. The disadvantage may be that the road toll system that has to handle the payment transactions must be included in the highly elaborate processes of the payment transaction system. Such payment transaction systems require complex processes for securing the handling of payment card transactions. The associated recording and verifications that must be constantly produced to maintain established certifications and meet standards for payment transaction systems, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS), are a tremendous burden on the road toll system and especially the central toll server and do not constitute a central responsibility of the road toll system. Thus, data access would have to be treated very restrictively. It would be necessary to encrypt a considerable amount of data, all data accesses would have to be checked and recorded, and frequent tests of all systems and processes would have to provided, documented and disclosed to approved testing institutions.